


Not On Our Watch

by Phoenix_Fault



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: And Neither Do I, Gen, I am suddenly more appreciative for every other author who can't tag, Quynh doesn't have time for Booker's shit, because this is actually very hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:27:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29809101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenix_Fault/pseuds/Phoenix_Fault
Summary: Quynh has some things to say and Booker will listen.Inspired by the Tumblr post that goes "plot twist: quynh is not actually evil in 2 old 2 guard. she just figured out what booker did through the dreams and showed up in his apartment to yell at him for it"
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	Not On Our Watch

Booker let the (ramshackle) door swing shut as he dropped his keys on the entrance table.

“What the actual fuck were you thinking?”

This was far from the first time that Booker had returned to his Paris apartment more drunk than not. However, this was the first time he’d been greeted like this. Well, the first time since he’d been banished anyway. Before that, it was a semi-regular occurrence. His drunk brain caught up with the situation, and warrior instincts battled with alcohol-addled reflexes as he reached for the gun tucked in his waistband.

“That’s not how this is going to go. You pull that weapon and you die. And then I’ll kill you again and then we see if you can beat my record for most revives”

With a sick feeling, Booker recognizes the woman before him and lets his hand fall. She’s elegant and withdrawn and seemingly alive and “-Quynh,” Booker gasps on an exhale.  
This was certainly new. He’d never hallucinated Quynh before. Being hallucinated was an honor reserved for people he’d personally fucked over. The adrenaline spike was fading fast to be replaced by a familiar bone-deep exhaustion. “What are you doing here, Quynh?” He didn’t expect an answer and was unsurprised when she remained sitting. His hallucinations were rarely so accommodating as to actually converse with him.

Walking past his sad couch, he snatched up a stained throw pillow and lobbed it towards the seated figure. The sooner he dispelled her the sooner he could pass out and then wake up and start drinking again. To his great surprise, Quynh snatched the pillow from the air. His hallucinations had never done _that_ before.

———/-/-/-/-/———

“How? How are you here? Why?” Booker demanded with the dawning realization that somehow this was real. He looked around for the team, for the family he threw away, but with the exception of Quynh his apartment was as desolate and empty as it had been for the last six months. _Why? Why would she be here instead of with Andy? With Nicky and Joe? With her family?_

“Make no mistake Booker, it’s my turn to talk now. And you will listen. For an eternity, I drowned and I dreamed.” As she spoke, she stood and turned to stare out his window. The view was nothing to write home about but Booker figured anything that wasn’t water must seem like a miracle. “I was haunted by nightmares of that godforsaken cell. Flashes of memory and hallucination. Fragments of who I was and the family I had. And then I started dreaming.”

As she spoke, the cold rage left her voice leaving her words soft.

“I started dreaming of you. I can’t explain the pure joy these dreams brought me. Between deaths, I saw brief flashes of my family. I saw my Andromache smile. I heard Yusuf’s laughter and Nicoló’s singing. I felt their hugs. I felt them and I was known in the best way imaginable.”

Her voice softened with each syllable as she said those three names. Thinking their names alone brought Booker such guilt. He hadn’t thought it could be any worse. That was one more miscalculation to add to the list of things he’d gotten wrong. Hearing Quynh say their names is so much worse. She formed each syllable with strength and filled them with evident love. For centuries her salt-filled lungs were stripped of their craft and now she spoke their names like they were the only words that mattered.

“I felt them accept you, Sebastian. And for a brief time, it was good. I had a piece of my family back. I saw the world evolve around you all as you kept up yet never truly changed. I loved them. I thought I could love you.”

From his position, Booker can see the corner of Quynh’s face as her lips tilt to a tired smile lacking joy and energy and anything that would truly make it a smile. A mannerism he’s seen on Andy a thousand times before.

Booker shifts his weight as he prepares to move closer but falls still again as Quynh continues.

“Did you know, I had originally felt such guilt. I could barely think as I drowned again and again. Yet I felt such pain for you. You were a window through which I saw my family. And in return, you were forced to share what should have been my grave. No one should be subjected to continual drowning even through just an echo of a nightmare”

Quynh turns from the window. For the first time, she looks straight at Booker. He feels exposed.

“The guilt disappeared the day I realized you would betray them.”


End file.
